Bo Nickal announced a fight change on Thursday night at a political rally in Oxford, Ohio. As of Friday, the UFC’s own website still lists the fight exactly where it was.
Nickal, speaking at an event for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, said his middleweight bout with Joe Pyfer has been pulled off UFC 335 and moved to February, where he would headline in Cleveland.
“I got a call backstage, and I do have some news, which is pretty exciting,” he said. “It actually got moved to February, where I’m going to be main eventing in Cleveland.” Then he added the part that gives the whole thing away as a Nickal production: “We are gonna go smash this guy and then go take the belt.”
Everything about this is unconfirmed
Let us be precise, because the coverage has not been. The only source for this is Nickal’s own statement in a 27-second video clip. The UFC has not announced it. UFC.com still lists Pyfer vs. Nickal on the UFC 335 card alongside Pavlovich vs. Pereira, Oliveira vs. Lopes, Moreno vs. Johnson and Pasley vs. Tafa.
No February date exists on the UFC schedule. No Cleveland venue has been named. No reason for the move has been given by Nickal, Pyfer or the promotion, and no injury, failed test or contract issue has been reported by anyone. The cause is simply not known.
UFC 335 is set for Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Charles Oliveira against Diego Lopes on top. The Pyfer fight was added to that card during the UFC 332 broadcast.
If it is true, it is a promotion
Moving from a Las Vegas pay-per-view undercard to a Fight Night main event is not a demotion. It means five rounds, top billing, and a card built around two middleweights.
It would also be the UFC’s first Cleveland event in more than a decade. The last one was UFC 203 in September 2016, when Stipe Miocic defended the heavyweight title against Alistair Overeem.
The fight itself deserves the slot
Pyfer is the better fighter on paper right now. He is 16-3 with 10 knockouts, ranked No. 6 at middleweight, and on a four-fight win streak that includes a second-round TKO of Israel Adesanya in the UFC Seattle main event in March, a decision over Kelvin Gastelum in June and a submission of Abus Magomedov last October.
Nickal is 9-1 and ranked inside the top 15. He has four knockouts, four submissions and six first-round finishes. His only loss came to Reinier de Ridder in May 2025, and he has rebuilt since with a third-round TKO of Rodolfo Vieira at UFC 322 and a first-round knockout of Kyle Daukaus at the White House card in June.
Pyfer’s reply to the announcement, posted on Instagram, was not diplomatic: “I will take your fake dreams away. Poor kid vs. rich kid.”
The actual story
A three-time NCAA wrestling champion who was the most hyped prospect in the sport until de Ridder exposed him, against the man who ended Adesanya’s run as a title threat, five rounds, in a city the UFC has not visited in ten years.
That is a great fight. It also currently exists only because a fighter said so at a campaign rally while the promotion’s website says otherwise. Sean Strickland holds the belt either way, and neither of these men is fighting for it in February.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.